


Captured

by Midori_Hime



Category: Beyblade
Genre: Arranged Marriage, Coming Out, F/M, M/M, Onesided Original Character/Canon Character, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-17
Updated: 2013-01-17
Packaged: 2017-11-25 20:28:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/642661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Midori_Hime/pseuds/Midori_Hime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After being caught doing the deed with Johnny McGregor of all people, Kai's arranged marriage to Rasmiya Smith takes a turn for the worst. How on earth will Johnny's princess be saved?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Kai

It was dark and the only light in the room was from the bright city lights outside of his room. He felt like some princess stuck at the top of a tower, waiting for a prince to ride up on a horse and rescue him and that did not make him impressed in the slightest. He was Kai Hiwatari, damnit! The ruthless, cold, aloof captain of the world championship team! Others needed him, not the other way around!

But he had to admit, he really could use some help right now. There wasn't anyone that would help him, even if they could. He was stuck in Melbourne, Australia, a nice enough city, but most of the time he was kept in his room, not allowed to wander the rest of the high rise condo much and not allowed outside to the real world even less often. His team had no idea where he was and his captors certainly weren't going to give him a phone or let him contact anyone on the outside.

Sighing, he turned away from the window and decided to go to bed. Crawling into the king sized bed, he attempted to sleep, but as usual, he failed miserably. He just felt so  _helpless_! Occasionally, he'd feel as though it was his own fault he was stuck here, but that was stupid. It was wrong, being held captive because of who you loved. (He snorted at that word - it was more than likely he was just in some stupid lustful stage, but his heart kept trying to tell him otherwise, but being who he was, he was too stubborn to listen.)

It had started as fulfilling his duty as the only Hiwatari heir - marriage. He'd known of his duty and of his betrothed since he was a child. He didn't particularly like Rasmiya Smith and the feeling was returned. They both understood the nature of the situation, however, and were happy to have a quick marriage, pop out a boy and a girl and divorce happily within a year or so. Maybe it was because she knew he was gay that she was so quick to agree; either way, the situation would favour Kai in the end, so he wasn't complaining.

In any case, about two months prior, his grandfather had business in Scotland, with none other than the McGregor family. The old man had decided that Kai needed to learn more about the family business and thought that being forced to cooperate with one of his rivals would be a wonderful way to do so. They'd flown to Scotland, completed their business and were about to leave when a hideous storm decided to roll in.

The stupid redhead thought it was hilarious that Kai was stuck at his house until planes were able to fly again. Kai shut him up with a fist to the stomach. After the third day, the novelty of having the bluenette 'at his mercy' wore off and Johnny decided Kai to show him his home town. They'd spent the day together sightseeing and Kai learnt much about the town (surprisingly without much arguments or physical violence). McGregor surprised him by offering to take him out for dinner, but he accepted despite accusing the other teen of a devious plot.

The food was nice enough, but the restaurant wasn't very private, leading to lots of fangirls and finger pointing and whispering. The odd pair left fairly quickly and ended up going to the local nightclub. Tala owned his own nightclub, so Kai was used to the scene, but the redhead he was with now had never been out, not once.

McGregor had made an absolute moron of himself with his so-called 'dance moves'. More like an 80's headless chook on drugs. So Kai did the only honourable thing to do. Yes, Kai taught Johnny McGregor how to dance. By the end of the night, Johnny had not only learnt to dance, but also got a boyfriend. Kai had gotten himself a nice guy, a bunch of pictures in the next day's paper, and also a one way ticket to hell.

They had a rather good night with the bedroom door locked. Needless to say, Mr and Mrs McGregor were not happy, and Johnny was grounded for his 'heinous and embarrassing behaviour'. Voltaire hadn't been particularly impressed either. He couldn't really care less about his grandson's sexual preference, he'd known the boy had been gay for years. As long as the boy completed his duty as his heir, the older man couldn't care less about what the boy did in his free time.

After 'the incident', the storm cleared (ironic that the real storm clears while a metaphorical one was brewing in his life), the Russians headed straight to Australia, much to Kai's confusion. Voltaire had met with the Australians, who were some big shots in the technical industry, in private. It was decided Kai would stay there until the wedding which would occur in a few months time, just after the start of the new year.

Rasmiya Smith was fine for the first few weeks. They went shopping, to movies, parties and played video games, annoyed staff and became quite good friends. It wasn't exactly fun, since his phone, laptop and basically anything that he could use to contact anyone had been confiscated, but still, it was bearable. It was, at least, until he told Rasmiya about his relationship with Johnny (which he and the Scotsman had decided was going to be more than a one night stand).

Rasmiya had flipped her biscuit, to put it nicely. She had screamed, cried, tried to beat him, threw things at him. She told her parents too, which led to them flipping it and having numerous fast and furious conversations with Voltaire. The result was that the wedding was moved forward, so the couple would marry mid-November.

Rolling over, Kai looked at the alarm clock boredly. It was almost six in the morning. Apparently he'd spent more time staring out the window, brooding and reminiscing than he thought. Thinking that there was no point sleeping, the bluenette slowly made his way to his adjoined bathroom to get ready for the day. The clock flashed 6:25am by the time he'd finished. Smirking, Kai figured that if he couldn't sleep, why should the rest of the household?

He'd realized early on that sound travelled quickly in his fancy prison, and the occupants were light sleepers. Fast sound, echoing spaces, light sleepers, loud noises and 'an unreasonable hour of the morning' meant very, very annoyed people. The champion blader started throwing things around and yelled curses as loudly as he could. Right on time, quick, muffled foot steps came down the corridor, Kai's signal to act more bratty.

Murphy, an older man burst into the room after unlocking the double doors from the outside. Murphy had a (not so) irrational hatred for the bluenette - he was devoted to his young mistress and the fact that this punk had had the nerve to make her cry riled him up. The man growled at the bluenette, who simply smirked back.

"What a disobedient dog you are." The man started to insult the brat, shutting the door as he did so. The teen was fast and had almost escaped more than once. He may be a bit past his prime, but the head servant of the household was still strong and fast. His skin bore scars from his time in the army and his face held another scar, much fresher than the others. The first time the brat had performed his stunt, the brown haired servant had come into the room with a crowbar.

He wouldn't have used it, of course. Mistress Rasmiya still desired to marry the teen, despite his horrific attitude. However, the bluenette had tried to escape, so he'd thrown the piece of metal. It had snapped in half, with one half rebounding and hitting him and the other whacking the boy.

Unluckily for Murphy, it got him on the mouth. It broke his jaw, some teeth, split his lip and left him with a hideous scar. Kai had then had time to scream for something more useful and when help arrived, he was quick to use them as a shield. Telisha had saved him then and she was kind enough to do so now (the Russian really had no idea why Murphy hated him so much, but it was obvious that he was in a foul mood that morning so Telisha coming was just what he needed).

Telisha came in, wearing some butterfly pajama pants with a bugs bunny shirt. She talked to Murphy, calming him down and making him leave. The man growled more insults and threats under his breath as he left, while Kai chirped "Have a good day!". Telisha sighed, murmuring that while he was cute, he totally wasn't worth the trouble.

Laughing a bit, Kai sat back on his bed. Telisha left and came back shortly after with his breakfast and some things to keep him amused for the day. Her hair was copper, just pass her shoulders and nice green eyes. A few years older than his age of eighteen, Telisha was tanned, tallish, thin and quite nice considering how often he woke everyone up and acted like a snobby rich brat.

"I'm training to be a kindergarten teacher you know. It's why I'm so good at looking after you." Kai's smile disappeared and the maid laughed and it wasn't long till he joined her. "Any particular reason for the  _lovely_  wake up call?"

Sniggering at the badly masked sarcasm and her annoyed tone, Kai replied flippantly. "Not particularly. Just thought you'd love to see my pretty face." The girl tsked, still smiling and told him to ring the bell when he'd finished with his meal. After a fortnight of this intense (yet fancy) captive existance, the blader replied he knew the drill and watched the girl leave. He called her back about an hour later and she gave him a newspaper in exchange for the dishes.

Settling down for another boring day of city watching and making escape plans (each more lame than the last), Kai sighed, wishing he was as free as his bitbeast was, or at the very least, that he could talk to someone. Isolation was fine when it was self inflicted, but being forced to be away from those he cared about... It made him realise just what he was missing out on.


	2. In The Land Down Under

The world champion team, the BladeBreakers, were sitting in the Kinomiya's dojo, preparing their blades, making stratergies and packing for the new tournament. Takao, usually the loudest of the group, sat quietly in the corner. His team left him there, thinking he was imagining battles and too busy with their own preperations. It wasn't until Hilary had to scream at him that dinner was ready that he snapped out of his haze.

Sitting at the table with the rest of his team, he voiced the reason for his quietness. "I'm really worried guys. Kai said he'd be here to prepare, and he was supposed to be here days ago!"

Hilary sighed, "Takao, we heard you the first dozen times."

"Then why aren't we doing anything?"

Kenny chipped in, "We're all just as worried, Takao," The rest of the team nodded in agreement, "but it's Kai. He'll show up when he's ready. I'm sure he'll be at the airport in a few days time, no doubt about it!"

Sighing, Takao continued eating. ' _I sure hope you're right, Chief.'_

_/./  
_

Two days later, the team squished onto the low couch in Mr Dickenson's office. The office was expensive looking, but after Daichi had thought it had been a brilliant idea to prove his powers with Starta Dragoon and launched the blade in the office, the whole team knew everything was a cheap imitation. They'd gathered there today to harass the old man about Kai's 'Alien Abduction' as Daichi referred to it as.

The bluenette enigma was non-contactable: letters that had been sent previously were all sent back saying 'no such address' or 'no such person' but really, who's dippy enough to believe  _Kai Hiwatari_ isn't a  _real_  person?; his cell was apparently non-existent; his home phone wouldn't pick up, no answering machine either; his emergency numbers were non-contactable and when they had tried to contact Voltaire, he threatened them with his lawyers.

Mr Dickenson came into the office a few moments later and took a seat behind his desk. Wearing a black suit, red tie and his signiture bowlers hat, the old man looked more tired than ever. He greeted his favourite team (not that he'd ever admit that before retiring), trying to put a bit of energy into the salutation, and was greeted with various responses. Takao and Daichi immediately asked if he had any snacks and he laughed, but inwardly he twitched, wishing the two stars could be more mature.

They sat like tinned sardines, made idle chit chat, drank tea and ate melting moments before the real talk began. The first question was casual enough, but for the fact it had been repeated numerous times since Wednesday night through annoying interruptions at work and telephone calls at ungodly hours of the morning. "So, Mr D, have you heard from Kai lately?"

The old man sighed, "I've known-"

"I KNEW IT!" Takao screeched. Hilary whacked the bluenette, hissing at him to not be so rude. She turned to the Chairman, sweetly telling him to continue. Nodding, he did.

"I shall. As I was saying, I've known for some weeks where Kai's been." He took a drink from his drink and continue. "Voltaire contacted me about this a number of weeks ago. Kai's in Australia. With his betrothed."

The reaction was almost comical. Hilary gasped and seemed to be in a state between giddiness and shock. Max was giggling and Takao and his apprentice started laughing hysterically. A general flurry of questions was thrown at the man who sighed and waited for the clamor to calm down.

"Yes, his betrothed. Rasmiya Smith, heiress to a highly successful technological company her great grandfather founded years ago. Their getting married in mid-November, I'm not sure of the exact date, but it's close to when the finals of the tournament will be held. He's been very busy, organising the wedding, so it's no wonder he hasn't had time to talk to you. They are both currently in Australia, so I'm sure you'll get to see him soon."

Pacified, the team thanked the Chairman and left. Rei and Hilary exchanged glances however. Kenny voiced their thoughts as they left. "If he's so sure about us seeing Kai, or if he knew about Kai previously, why wasn't he honest with us? Why did he seem so defeated?" Unfortunately, they held no answers for their questions.

/./

Irritated, the Scotsman growled. He missed Kai. Yes, the one who he'd fought for years, had insulted and bickered with, but yes, Johnny McGregor missed Kai. The fact that he was on a plane with the other world champion teams, as well as some wild card nobodies, who were all creating a riot wasn't particularly helping. The phoenixes dominating and authoritative attitude would be highly useful for his headache's and sanity's sake right now.

"Johnny and his lover sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-!" Gargling, gasping, retarded sounds came out of Enrique's throat. Oliver and Robert quickly moved to pry Johnny's muscled hands from the Italian's pressured throat. This was a common occurrence, they counted it as a type of training now - they had to be quick enough so Enrique didn't pass out and they had to be stronger than Johnny, so he wasn't charged with murder.

The moment Enrique had found out about Johnny and his lover (not that they knew who that was yet), the teasing came out faster than you can say 'Let it rip!'. The teasing came in various forms: Enrique dressing up in various outfits, proclaiming his deep love for Johnny; Random scribbling of Johnny loves ?; that stupid song about the people in the tree; mysterious tips that came from 'a close friend' and were published in trashy gossip mags as well as Enrique blatantly being involved in interviews that were published in the most girliest, gossipiest and most bought mags that were filled with the biggest rubbish possible.

A lot of the wildcards were in awe of the championship teams. Johnny scoffed and shooed them away. If you wanted to be a champion, you couldn't fawn over people - you needed the attitude and the skill to match, and these kids obviously had neither. Enrique was lapping up the attention. Well, what little attention he got anyway. Tala, on the other hand, was basking in the glory, smirking this way and that. Though when one fan got far to close, the red head turned around and gave Bryan a French kiss!

Bryan was quite shocked himself, though for different reasons than one would think. Apparently, snogging his taller teammate was one of Tala's anti-fangirl mechanisms. The beating he received from the purple haired teen was apparently worth it as it happened a few more times throughout the flight. By the end of the flight, Johnnny, and a few other bladers, were pretty sure that the yaoi fangirls among the wild card entries were purposely making Tala freak to watch the two kiss. Or maybe they just enjoyed watching Tala being beaten. Johnny certainly didn't mind - it kept the other redhead quiet for a while at least.

/./

In his skyscraper tower, Kai was literally hitting his head against the wide window. It was a rainy, cold day (typical Melbourne), so there wasn't anything interesting going on in what scenery he could see. His head hitting the window was a dull, depressing chant. Painful, too. It was quite dizzying work.

Attracted by the noise, Telisha came in, hands on her hips, in a practical but still attractive maid outfit. She didn't seem too impressed with the bluenette and made her displeasure known in a single word. "KAI!"

Thus the chant was broken. "Da?" An innocent question, laced with confusion.

"How many times must I tell you? Do NOT under ANY circumstance bash your head against the windows!" An angry answer, filled with annoyance.

"Because I don't understand why." A blunt reply, filled with 'to the point'-ness.

"Because, Kai, it makes the windows harder to  _clean_." This statement was raged filled, complete with a side of twitching.

The brilliant reply to that, "Oh." Thus the chant started again. Though it abruptly stopped. "If windows are so hard to clean, why do people have them?" That was said with a straight face. More importantly, the question was actually serious. Poor Kai, there were such high hopes for him.

After a few moments of stunned silence, where Kai patiently waited and amused himself by fogging up the windows and drew (mostly rude) things, Telisha responded. "That is the most moronic thing I've ever heard! Not only could young kids just, oh I don't know, let's say FALL out of the empty space, but you'd  _escape_ , moron!"

"You're assuming I'm suicidal. Also, you're assuming there was nothing there. I planned for a wall to be put there. And you know what they say?"

"What?"

A sly smile, "When you assume, you make an ass out of you and me."

Frustrated with the brat, Telisha left, storming out and locking the room behind her. Succumbing to his numbing headache, Kai curled up on his bed, clutching Dranzer tightly. She glowed warmly and he sighed, wishing he was allowed his launcher.

Having the bit in his palm was comforting nonetheless, even though he wasn't allowed to free her properly. She continued to glow until he fell into a fitful sleep, dreams filled with the things he was denied: friends, freedom and love.


	3. A Twist In The Tournament

As was the norm, Telisha brought him the day's paper when she came to take his breakfast dishes away. He'd bored himself to death with the books he'd been given and Dranzer was so shiny he could see his reflection (a bit distorted in the blue metal and more than slightly cantankerous looking, but that was definitely his face) and he'd used the last of his war paint to paint Dranzer on his wall, so his current form of amusement had been found in the newspaper. After reading and giggling over the comics, he could make aeroplanes and pirate ships and hats and paper monkeys too.

Today however, the newspaper found something interesting among it's tabloids and political nonsense. He'd thrown the paper around after skimming it (Julia Gillard annoyed him so much that he didn't bother reading the rest of the paper) and made a hat and a plane. The plane had crashed into the hat and made it unravel. Takao's face had been on the folded piece of paper and that had piqued the bluenette's curiosity.

Kai had felt the urge to rip it, but found the accompanying article interesting. The article (along with a now disfigured picture of Takao) now lay under his pillow, and served as his daily reminder that he was sane (Telisha had coughed at this as he proudly recalled his tale). He'd then used some more paper to make himself a calendar. Ironically enough, the finals would fall on his wedding day - with two months between now and then, he hoped his team had received information about his whereabouts. Whether his team were smart enough and fast enough to put two and two together, he prayed for a miracle nonetheless.

/./

While Kai continued amusing himself by making a newspaper voodoo doll (of Tala or Rasmiya, he couldn't tell), his friends and lover arrived in the land of roos and koalas. They had arrived in Brisbane (where the weather was lovely in comparison to dreary Melbourne) and they would move around the country for each leg of the tournament, with the finals being held in Melbourne. The un-lack of surfboards scared Tala immensely. The lack of arcades disturbed Ian greatly. But what frightened Bryan, most of all, were the paparazzi that were flocking around Tala and himself, trying to piece together their 'tragic romance' as one journalist said. This frightened Tala more, and thus Bryan was molested, again.

The bladers were then ushered onto a bus where they were taken to a press conference. The press continued to take photos and harass the champions with questions (Kai's disappearance was ignored for the main part - it was quite common for him to show up silently) until Mr Dickenson finally arrived and began the conference.

"Firstly, I'd like to thank you all for coming. As you know, the tournament will begin here in Brisbane," here a few of the Brisbanites whopped, "before continuing onto Perth, Sydney, the ACT and finish in Melbourne. However, what you don't know is that this year, the tournament will have a new set of rules." A murmured whisper rose through the crowd and the bladers eyed each other anxiously.

"Being a tournament where teams will vie for the title of world champions, the teams who have already reached the standards of international competition have been accused of having an advantage, meaning there is no room for new blood. As such, it has been decided to give the wildcard teams a chance as well as promoting friendship and inter-team unity between our established champions, that the teams will be merged and mixed up."

A loud outcry was heard between the established teams. All their strategies would now be known to other teams, and the way their blades worked as well as their training secrets would now mean nothing! The press started throwing questions to the respected Chairman and the newer teams smirked like that cat who got both the canary and the cream.

"I understand that this is not what many of you desire. To be honest, this isn't my preferred solution either. Nonetheless, this is what was decided. After the announcement of the new teams, you will be given time to get to know each other, nominate a captain and create a name for your new team. The captains will then announce your names and the teams will then be escorted to your hotels. The first round of the tournament will begin one week from now. Further dates await you in your room, as well as details of where you can train and the like."

Mr Dickenson then removed a remote control from his pocket. A push of a button changed the screen on the widescreen behind him. A second button showed a virtual machine, that contained numerous balls with numbers on them. "When I push the button, the machine will spit out a numbered ball. Each ball correlates to a blader. As you can see, the process is completely random and has no human interference whatsoever. Let's begin, shall we?"

Beep. The virtual balls were flung around in the machine before one was spat out. A large seven came up on the screen. "Number seven - Tala Ivanov. You will be in team one, so please make your way to the waiting area to the right." Tala had just made it to said waiting area when the next number was announced. "Julia, to team two." The girl rose and followed to where Tala was standing on the other side of the room.

And so it went on. By the end of the day, the new teams and their captains had been chosen.

Team One became Team Neoborg and consisted of Tala, Johnny, Brooklyn, Bryan and their coach was Hiro. Tala had nabbed the captain's title. Team Two was led by Julia and her members were Robert, Ian, Daichi, Kevin and they were lucky enough to nab Kenny as a technician. Julia named her team "Majestuoso", which is spanish for 'Majestic'. Team Three (The M Brigade) was led by Miguel. Mystel, Ming Mind and Max made his team and Romero was their coach.

Team Four seemed to be carefree and was led by Enrique. Tyson, Gary, Eddy and Claude completed "Team Vincitore" (Team Winner) and Judy became their coach and technician. The fifth team (Team Rushmore) was led by Rick, much to Mariah's annoyance. Aaron and Michael completed their team, and they weren't sure if they were lucky or unlucky to get Tao as their guide. The second last team had chosen the nervous Raul as their captain and Oliver, Crusher, Mathilda and Lee created the rest of SpinFire. Last but not least, was Emily's team. Hilary wasn't really a technician or a coach, but she provided good moral support, and the actual bladers for The Blade Thrashers consisted of Spender, Rei, Garland and Steve.

/./

"Well this is nice." Tala flopped on his bed, which he was sharing with Bryan. The Falcon had glared, but seriously, who else was going to sleep with Tala? It wasn't that he didn't love Tala or anything, because he seriously did, it was just that the redhead was quite spacey and tended to ignore space bubbles whenever he felt like it.

Johnny huffed, "I hate it here."

Bryan rolled his eyes as Tala piped up again, "That's cuz you have UST."

Johnny, Tala, Bryan and Brooklyn had to share a room - apparently the coaches had their own suite. Originally, there were four singles to the room, but Tala had pushed his next to Bryan's. To be fair, he was slightly freaked about having to share with Brooklyn, but Johnny wouldn't have minded that. And that was Team NeoBorg, one happy family!

Johnny sighed, what he wouldn't give for one of Kai's mind blowing-

"I can see your friend!" Tala said, Tala sung? Johnny wasn't sure. Johnny looked around wildly, a massive blush on his face.

"There!" Johnny followed Tala's finger and saw Enrique, on his balcony on the other side of the building. Johnny sighed with relief.

"You're an idiot, you know that right?" Bryan hummed in agreement and Tala poked his tongue out. "Whatever, loser. I'm off." Ignoring Tala's yell of indignation that he wasn't worshipping his new captain, he exited the cosy little hotel suite, ignoring Brooklyn who was channel surfing. This was going to be an incredibly long tournament. And where the hell was Kai? Bastard better not have retired again. Johnny would kick his ass if he had! Huffing, he jabbed the elevator button harder than necessary and decided to have the afternoon free of annoying redheads and elusive bluenettes and relax, before getting into the nitty gritty business of training the next day.

/./

"Kai, dearest? I'm coming in!" A shrill fluttery voice was heard, and Kai quickly tried to make a cross out of the poor decrepit and shredded newspaper that was eating his floor. His door opened, and he yelled, "Back, she-devil, back!".

Only when she stared at him stupidly did he remember that crosses were for vampires. He cursed and tried to make himself a cage which the witchy bitch couldn't penetrate with her girliness and craziness. Rasmiya giggled. "Oh! Is this a new game we're going to play? Am I the bad guy?" The last games Kai and Rasmiya had 'played' was darts, and Rasmiya had accidentally (supposedly) missed when she heard the word Johnny. Kai had ended up needing stitches. He shuddered at the memory.

Abandoning his cage, Kai sighed dejectedly. "What do you want, Rasmiya?" She seemed hurt by how he used her full name instead of calling her Ras or Rassy, like most people did and like he used to. It was her fault. She had the chance to let him go and be with Johnny, or hell, even treat him better until they got married, but she choose to be his captor and make him miserable instead. Whenever he was allowed out, Murphy followed him around like a cranky, glaring shadow. Her parents were brisk with him and blamed him for their stuck up, self centered daughter's unhappiness, when they could do their part to make things better too. Apparently thinking about others was too hard for this family however.

"Um, I was just wondering if you wanted to do anything? Like, go out maybe?" Seeing his look, hopeful but wary, the black haired girl hurried to continue. "We'll sneak out. I'll lock your room from the outside and we'll run so Murphy doesn't catch us. Um, we could go shopping and have lunch?" Kai glanced over to the large window. It was dreary, but it was freedom. Turning to the nervous and plain looking girl, he nodded.

"Let's go then."


	4. Of Bridezillas and Brooklyn

"That has to work!"

"Calm down Takao." Rei continued quickly, seeing his former teammate getting riled up. "It's a good plan and all, but how can we rescue Kai if we don't know where he is?" The Chinese blader watched as the former BladeBreaker's seemed to deflate. "We'll find him, no doubt about it. But it won't happen instantly. Let's keep both eyes and ears out, and we'll keep working on our plan so when we do find Kai, it'll work without fail."

"Yeah~!" A simultaneous yell throughout the team signaled the end of the meeting and the friends chatted a bit, their missing captain still at the back of their minds.

Mr Dickenson could say Kai was just busy until he was blue in the face, but why hadn't they received wedding invites? Kai acted tough, like he didn't care about anyone, but they knew as well as anyone that he had a soft side. That soft side was the one that looked out for them when they got themselves in one mess or another, or when he let them take numerous breaks even though he could keep going and going, or when he'd stay up all night to look after them when they were sick. That soft side would have invited them, pride and stubborness aside. Something was definately off, and they wouldn't stop until they found out what it was and where their captain was. Period.

/./

As nice as it was to have a larger degree of freedom, being chained to Rasmiya (by her dainty hand practically crushing his) ruined the euphoria of it. Stepping into the weak sunlight, the older teen looked around, taking in the sounds and smells of the world he'd watched from his window. Rasmiya put on her black designer sunglasses (considering the generally lack of sun, and when the sun was visible it was almost laughable, Kai really thought this was unnecessary), "Don't get too high on your freedom. You better not be thinking of running away from me, kay?" She tightened her grip on his hand and pulled him along the busy street. Grumbling under his breath, the bluenette pulled a face at the girl in front of him, wandering quietly behind his affianced.

As promised, they had lunch at a quaint little restaurant (the prices revealed why the place was so quiet). Naturally, this was after Rasmiya had brought numerous pairs of shoes, dresses and other clothes. She'd brought him some CDs, a new iPod and gave him a few hundred dollars to spend on beyblading parts, so he kept his grumbling to a minimum (at a minimum volume at least, she certainly deserved whatever insult he mumbled). He had put his foot down when she'd decided she wanted one of those fluffy rats people tried to classify as dogs. She'd huffed and whined but he'd won in the end.

Afterwards, they continued shopping. Rasmiya had sent her stuff home via a nameless servant and dragged Kai to what seemed to be a street full of wedding specialists. Twitching, he was dragged from store to store. She made him get fitted for his suit (nothing fancy, just plain black with matching shoes and a white dress shirt, but it was well cut and would be adorned by a royal purple tie, and he'd have a flower of her choice in his breast pocket). She flicked through wedding dresses, gushing and giggling with the assistants. The girl asked his opinion on a few, trying to figure out what would please him, he assumed.

The teen pulled a face as the girl asked his opinion on another frilly thing.

"Kai? Darling, what do you think?" Rasmiya was plain, but in a pretty sort of way, he supposed. Long raven hair, usually pale skin (blemishes were covered with the most expensive makeup available) and dark brown eyes. She often wore contacts because she was vain enough to think that only geeky nerds wore glasses (he made a point of wearing his around a lot more often after that). The girl snapped at him to get his attention, ignoring how he rolled his eyes.

"Awful. All of them. Simply awful."

 _That_ got her attention. The girl turned and faced him. "What?" She seemed as though she could spit venom at that point.

"I said they're all awful."

"Ah, I see. Another colour, perhaps?"

"Aren't you supposed to be a virgin? Hiwataris are a stickler for tradition after all - I simply can't marry her if you aren't!" He ignored the angry mutterings of the clerks and took satisfaction of watching her face go from artificially tanned (he'd waited an hour while she was painted brown) to glowing red.

She took it in stride, he had to admit to her credit. "Of course I am. But aren't we both rather pale? Maybe it would be too much white?"

' _Nice save'_ , he thought appreciatively. He didn't mind a verbal spare and it was nice to find someone (a girl especially) who wouldn't cower the minute he insulted them. "I see your point. But white is fine. There's flowers and stuff, to detract from the white, right?" She hummed, thinking she'd won, and continued picking through the hundreds of dresses. About half an hour later, Rasmiya asked what the problem had been.

"I was thinking more along the lines of a diet." Kai really couldn't help himself sometimes, he was a smartarse by nature after all.

Hisses came from the clerks this time, and they rushed to keep her happy so she'd spend her cash there rather than one of the other million copy cat shops in the street. Ignoring them, Rasmiya turned to him, furious and looking ready to hit him. Keeping her voice quiet and almost making herself sound calm, she questioned him. "Are you saying I'm fat?"

Smirking, Kai tipped his head. "And here I was thinking you were just a rich bitch." Snarling, she grabbed his arm, visciously digging her nails in at the same time and hauled him out of the shop. She waited until they were outside before she slapped him. He tensed and narrowed his eyes, about to start yelling back when she abruptly stopped and started dragging him along. ' _Two could play at that game'_ , Kai thought nastily.

/./

It was almost dusk when they started heading back. Kai was carrying numerous bags, and he'd thought he'd already dropped a fair few of them, but he didn't really care. Rasmiya was being such a cow. They'd continued along Wedding Lane as he dubbed it and had brought wedding invites and placement cards, found a caterer, chosen flowers from an arrogant florist, found dresses for the bridesmaids and organised where the reception would be and how the schedule would work among other things. And by that, Kai meant he was dragged along while Rasmiya did everything. The princess had to have things her way, after all.

On the way back 'home', Kai drank in the sites, knowing he probably wouldn't be out again until the wedding. The bluenette was caught up in the sights and sounds of the city that he didn't even notice he'd tripped until his nose hit the pavement.

"Damn it!" Picking himself up, he glared at the person he'd bumped into. "You!"

"Me." Brooklyn smiled and offered a hand. Whacking it away, Kai scrambled to his feet, glaring at the orange haired blader.

"Don't tell me  _you_  of all people were allowed in the tournament?"

Giving him a look, Brooklyn replied, "Wasn't Bryan still allowed to participate after the incident with Ray?" Scoffing, Kai ignored him and started picking up Rasmiya's crap. Naturally the raven haired girl had left him behind and would only return when she realised he wasn't responding to her crappy treatment.

Turning around, Kai was going to leave without another word, but Brooklyn had to be a smart arse and question him about why he wasn't in the tournament. About to snarl at his enemy, Rasmiya choose that moment to arrive and start chewing her fiance out. The younger teen remained oblivious to Brooklyn's presence for a while until he sniggered at something she said. The shorter one then rounded on him, telling him to back off and making a general prat out of herself.

Gripping Kai's arm again, the couple stalked off, for once having the same intent on getting the hell away from Brooklyn. However, the former BEGA blader had other plans. This was certainly an interesting development, was it not? Kai Hiwatari, of all people, whipped by some bratty snob? It was almost too good to be true!

Walking along behind the two, he was far enough away that he couldn't really hear what was being said, but he didn't really need to. Kai was still holding the girl's stuff but he wasn't being very careful. A few things would fall out here and there yet the bluenette paid them no notice. He was also scuffing his feet and seemed to be making the pretty little raven's life as difficult as he could. A reluctant boyfriend, perhaps? That made things even more amusing.

The girl seemed angry (furious and vicious was probably a better description), but she also seemed desperate. She was nowhere near as strong as Kai, but judging by the pink on his left cheek and the bloody crescents on his arm, Brooklyn could see the little bird wasn't as weak as she appeared. Love made people do crazy things apparently.

When they entered a fancy high rise building, Brooklyn gave them another look, watching as they continued their spat through the lobby and into the elevator. After they dissappeared from his sight, he turned and made his way back to his own hotel. What an interesting situation he'd stumbled on! The mighty Kai being dragged around like a dog and such a fiery, interesting, bitchy creature that had done it. He'd have to keep an eye on the scenario, without fail.


	5. Team Bonding

Three days had passed since Brooklyn had watched Kai being dragged around like a dog. Unfortunately, he hadn't had the time to watch the drama unfold further - it seemed that Tala was just as much of a nutcase when it came to training as Hiro was. Not that Brooklyn needed it. He was the best after all (Tala snarked back that he was the best - they both ignored Bryan when he kept pointing out Tyson had kicked both their butts).

So Brooklyn was forced to train with his 'team mates' in some crappy centre, nothing like the high tech rooms he was used to (the guy at the front desk had just muttered about other countries getting technology faster than Australia and glared at him). Nothing interesting happened. Bryan and Tala trained together, or at the least, with high awareness of what the other was doing as they knew each others routines so well. Brooklyn and Johnny often stayed far away from each other, and from the Russians. What could he say? They all had clashing personalities, after all. (Hiro said it was more like clashing egos, which got him yelled at by all the red heads)

The other teams were presumably training. It would be a waste of time if they weren't. Since all the world champions were in one area that had limited dishes, and the newbies still needed to try, the champs were lumped in together. Sharing a training room with multiple teams was also something that he'd never done. They only got three hours a day in the room, before either having to move to the gym, go to a public stadium like a park and be surrounded by gawking fan brats, give up or hire out a different private facility that was even more pathetic than the one they were currently using.

He honestly couldn't wait for the tournament to start, simply so they could move onto the next (hopefully less crappy) place.

"You're doing it wrong."  
"Your face is doing it wrong!"

Raul walked past the gym, listening to his sister and Daichi throw insults at each other. He heard a sickening loud thud (he heard Kenny squeak and start panicking at that) and decided to just keep walking - Julia wouldn't be too great to have coffee with right now.

He had honestly wanted to ask Julia about how to manage a team. His team was mostly level headed and well behaved. They listened to him but mostly they trained alone, simply because he had no idea how training a team worked - after all, it had just been him and Julia, for, well, ever really. He sighed, hoping he'd get the hang of this sooner rather than later - while the teams skills were great, their teamwork was... Lacking, to say the least and that was one thing he was most definately against.

They tried to hide it, but to be honest, the boys were all surprised by how good Hilary was for someone who didn't even blade. She made sure they were all up in time and made all their meals and even made them pretty good schedules. She planned runs and time in the gym and had gotten the best time slots for the training room. Her training regimes were pretty full on and it gave them an idea of what life as a Blade Breaker was. Rei was used to her, of course, but watching the others fumble over the idea that a girl who most saw as (essentially) a cheerleader, pick up their mistakes in the dish or give advice when they were reconstructing their blades was incredibly amusing.

Claude felt that'd it would be lucky if his team would make it past round one. With Gary and Tyson in the buffet, Enrique with a girl on each arm, training was unofficially cancelled for the day. Eddy, having done something (hopefully minor) to his leg while playing basketball that morning, was being helped to first aid by Judy. Claude had tried to practice in what had appeared to be a deserted area of the park, but out of nowhere, fans, haters and the press alike had appeared, making him do a runner. The gym was also full, so apart from fixing his blade and channel surfing, the day was a wipeout.

Mariah had stormed out of practice after she and Rick had had their third arguement for the day. Aaron and Michael had decided to let the stubborn male practice by himself and worked as a team in a dish as far as the could be from him. When Mariah came back to the hotel that evening, after she had evidently being training a lot rougher than they had, she snorted at their feeble attempts at dinner and made them all apologise to her (which Aaron and Michael begrudgingly did - Michael at least had been slightly rude, but Aaron hadn't done anything) before she made them something edible and that didn't make the whole place smell like a couch set on fire.

Miguel smiled and laughed with his team mates, not realising how lucky he was. They had spnt their time in the training room, before heading out to lunch. There was no press and they only encountered the most lovely of fans. Afterwards, they spent some time sight seeing before heading back to the gym, where they spent the rest of the day. The night was spent watching a movie as a team and getting to know each other better. Mystel and Ming Ming were already close and both he and Max had rather cheerful, easy going personalities, so their team work was already strong, with no qualms whatsoever! Looking at his team, he couldn't help but think that they had no chance of loosing and that as new of a team this was, they were definately going to be one of the hardest to beat.

Kai had always held pride in his ability to think ahead of time or to get himself out of a sticky situation, but in just wasn't coming to him now. Rasmiya was all over the place and he couldn't pin down her actions far enough in advance to be able to find some way to use them to his advantage. His main goal was to escape, naturally, but there weren't any obvious possibilities. Being at the top of a tower meant no jumping out windows and there was no way he'd be able to run down that many flights of stairs without being caught - the lift was out of bounds too, since there was a camera and the staff at the front desk were told due to his (unexisting) illness, he wasn't allowed by himself. If it didn't have a camera, he would have been fine, but it seemed everything was against him.

All he could really do now was hope and wait until some type of crazy opportunity came up. The other night he'd dreamt that he'd managed to get away, only to be hit by a truck. Rasmiya couldn't possibly stop his friends from visiting him in hospital, but he didn't want to have to get stuck in hospital to be able to tell them the dilemma he was in. Sighing for the umpteenth time that night, he settled down to sleep, minutely content that he was allowed to watch the tournament as it was televised. Making sure his teammates were okay via tv wasn't something he was okay with, but it was better than not knowing how they were at all, he mused.

"When we find him, what can we do?"  
"It depends on how the situation is. It certainly isn't one where Mr Dickenson can help, so it probably won't be easy."  
"So long as the moron doesn't almost die on a lake in the middle of winter again, I'm totally okay with whatever we have to do."

Bryan and Tala looked over to the members of the Blade Breakers (the teams, while agreeing to the new team splits, refused to say they were members of their new groups - they would always be a member of their original team and that was that). They were having a heated discussion over lunch and considering the only member who was missing was Kai, it wasn't exactly hard to figure out what they were so passionate about.

"Do you think we should tell them what we know?"

Tala snorted. Speaking around whatever he'd started chewing (Bryan felt like he should be disgusted, but neither Tala nor Ian had the best table manners which unfortunately, made him used to the grossness of, well, them) he said, "They'll want us to help. I don't like helping. I don't like them. Kai's our teammate anyway."

Bryan rolled his eyes. Why was Tala so stubborn? Spencer raised an eyebrow from the table behind Tala where he was with his new team. Bryan just shrugged while Spencer smirked - the blonde quite enjoyed being away from his two animated friends; it was almost like a holiday for him.

Unfortunately for Bryan, Tala was still babbling on. Eventually the Blade Breakers would come to them, so, logically, it was best to talk to them now, when it was convenient for him (because people always wanted things from him at the most inconvenient and annoying times) and before they got too crazy about the whole situation. Standing up, he ignored how his captain yelled something at him and walked calmly to the other side of the room. Tala would follow shortly - he always did. Making his way to the group, he was about to start talking when Tala shouted (far too close to his ear) that Kai was their teammate and they could sod off. Sighing, the purple haired blader shoved Tala and intercepted before they could whip out angry comments of their own.

"We guessed what you were talking about and decided to help." Not giving Tala enough time to protest by placing his boot on the redhead's chest (perhaps slightly too hard), he continued. "Kai made Voltaire made somehow so he was sent here." Ignoring Takao's  _"We already knew that"_  Bryan kept talking. "He is currently in Melbourne planning his wedding. However, due to his preference for males rather than females-"

Queue outburst from Blade Breakers and being stared at by everyone in the room. Bryan sighed again while Tala made (what Bryan thought was) the most brilliant idea in his life. "Do you think we should take this someone more private?" Everyone in the conversation agreed and scurried to a much quieter place, making sure they weren't being followed by anyone who they didn't want to know the truth.

"As I was saying, due to his preferences, the family of his betrothed went a bit spastic. They decided that if he was left to roam about, he wouldn't want to marry their prescious daughter. As such, they're keeping him hostage. Though they may be the type of people who think they can stamp out gayness if he spends enough time with girls." Hilary would have protested about that being unfair and akin to being thrown into prison, but Tala's statement kind of stumped her.

"Does that actually work?"  
"Even if it did Tala, nothing could stamp the gay out of you." The Blade Breakers were slightly confused as to whether Bryan meant that as an insult (Tala being gay didn't shock anyone with the way he dressed and acted), but Tala seemed content so they let him be.

"So I'm supposing you guys didn't get invitations either?"  
"Pfft. I'm gatecrashing so why do I need an invite?"

Tyson was again ignored when he proclaimed what a great idea that was. Kenny asked how they got their information (though he wasn't entirely sure that he wanted to know).

"Hacking, duh. Voltaire really isn't that computer savvy. Easy as pie, man, easy as pie."  
"So all we can do know is wait until we get to Melbourne and make up a plan in record time, put it into action and still have time for the finals?"  
"Pretty much, catboy. But just so you know, you guys won't actually make it to the finals cuz my team is the best and -"  
"Tala, shut up." Tala glared at his teammate but did as he was told. "Unfortunately, Kai's wedding is on the day of the finals. Doesn't leave us much of an opportunity."

"It won't be easy meeting up to swap information either. How about we exchange emails and let each other know whatever we hear?" Agreeing to that, addresses were swapped and preliminary plans were placed into action. Once the Blade Breakers read all the information they were sent, they felt that hopes of anything succeeding were going to be slim indeed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMFG biggest plot hole ever . Rasmiya and Kai are supposed to be in Melb. Everyone else is supposed to be in Brisvegas. Brooklyn and Ras/Kai have already met. Ugggggh. Let's just pretend that Kai/Ras were having a holiday and have gone back to Melbs, kay?

**Author's Note:**

> I know Kai seems a little OOC, but he's love/lust-sick, being held prisoners by a spastic family of Australians (I'm Australian and I'll bash us as much as I please!), has been an insomniac for a while (which naturally, I forgot to mention. W/e), etc etc.  
> Let me know what you think!


End file.
